Yayoi Kusama Youth Workshop Launches At Tate

Infinite Kusama is an exciting event on 24 March, running in conjunction with the Kusama retrospective exhibition at Tate Modern. It is offering 15-25 year olds a collaboration opportunity between Tate Collective and Louis Vuitton’s Young Arts programme. The programme will include a day of workshops which will allow young people to interact with art in an engaging and exciting way. The highlight will be ‘Hello Cube’ designed by design duo Hellicar & Lewis, which can be controlled by social media sources. A competition will also run for which the prize will be a chance to visit Yayoi Kusama in her studio in Japan. The event will finish with a silent disco with DJ sets from Actress, Lapalux and Koreless. It should be a really fun and interesting day, with loads of opportunities for young people to engage with art in a new, dynamic way, while being inspired by Kusama’s own artistic vision.

Infinite Kusama is a project that brings together young people to experience and respond to the work of one of Japan’s most famous artists, Yayoi Kusama. Highlights include an immersive afternoon of drop-in art, fashion and sound workshops culminating in a silent disco at Tate Modern on 24 March and an online competition to win a trip to Yayoi Kusama’s studio in Tokyo initiated by the Louis Vuitton Young Arts project and REcreativeUK.com.

The centre piece of the day’s events on 24 March is The Hello Cube, a groundbreaking new interactive digital installation inspired by Kusama’s work that responds to both physical activity and Twitter commands and will conclude with a silent disco with DJ sets from Actress (werkdiscs), Lapalux (Brainfeeder) and Koreless (Pictures Music).

The Hello Cube has been created by innovative design duo Hellicar & Lewis and is inspired by Yayoi Kusama’s The Passing Winter – a work owned by Tate. As with The Passing Winter, in order to experience the work, the audience peer into an unassuming small box to view a dancing display of colour, movement and light. The Hello Cube differs from Kusama’s work in that it has been created to react to both social media and physical activity. For example, tweeting “@TheHelloCube next red sparkles” sets off a sparkling red pattern in the cube and sends a twitpic of the display to the person who tweeted the original message.

Infinite Kusama coincides with the major retrospective Yayoi Kusama at Tate Modern from 9 February to 5 June and includes the launch of a competition to win a trip to Japan to meet Kusama at her studio in Tokyo. Young people aged 16 to 25 are invited to create a work inspired by Kusama that takes the idea of obsession as a starting point. Many of Kusama’s works feature repetitive visual forms, most famously her immersive installations of dots and early infinity net paintings. Competition entries are to be submitted online by 15 April where they will be judged by a panel of Tate curators and REcreative editorial staff.

Since the 1940s, Yayoi Kusama has developed an extensive body of work. From her earliest explorations of painting in provincial Japan to new unseen works, the exhibition will reveal a history of successive developments and daring advances, demonstrating why Kusama remains one of the most engaging practitioners today.

Infinite Kusama is a partnership with Tate Collective, REcreativeUK.com and the Louis Vuitton Young Arts Project and supported by Louis Vuitton.

16mm Kusama (Schools and Families Room, Level 1) Inspired by Kusama’s seminal film Self Obliteration, experimental film artist Rachel Rayns leads a workshop in drawing 16mm film graffiti. A film will be produced exploring accumulation and pattern and screened later in the day.

Textiles workshop with Willow and Bethany Mitchell (Seminar room or McAuley gallery, Level 1) Led by artists Willow and Bethany Mitchell participants are invited to produce a textile cloud sculpture to add to an ever-growing installation throughout the afternoon.

Sonic Kusama Music Workshop (East Room, Level 7) Artist-led workshop exploring potential connections between Kusama's work and the creation and representation of new music and sound art through visual music interfaces, specifically the Toshio Iwai designed Tenori-on by Yamaha, used by artists like Kieran Hebden (Four Tet) and Jim O'Rourke.

15.00 – 18.00: Infinite Kusama Silent Disco on the bridge of the Turbine Hall Dance to a silent disco with DJ sets from Actress (werkdiscs), Lapalux (Brainfeeder) and Koreless (Pictures Music) on the bridge of Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall.

In Kusama’s work I’m here, but nothing, the floor, walls, furniture and every object in the room are covered in florescent dots illuminated with a UV light. Similarly stickers, wristbands, nail varnish and balloons accumulated throughout the day and person of the silent disco dancers will help create a Kusama-esque environment.

INTERACT WITH US

MEMBERS

LONDON ART NETWORK

ArtLyst is the most comprehensive art information website in London. It was created to distribute up-to-date contemporary art news, events, exhibitions, fairs, and auctions. We focus on new and emerging art, including pop-up and temporary exhibitions. Our Web 2.0 social-networking platform allows you to post your professional profile and exhibit work in your own unique gallery. All galleries are curated, vetted, and FREE. The ArtLyst publishing platform gathers together news, reviews, resources, classifieds, and articles. Publish yourself, contribute and reach a wide audience!